| In
the 1890's a young German Calvary officer, Max Von Stephanitz watching
sheep dogs having trouble with large sheep came up with an idea that
a new breed of dogs were needed. He envisioned a dog of medium size
who could cope with any size sheep found in Germany. The dog would
be extremely intelligent, quick, protective, and noble in appearance,
trust worthy in charter, physically sound so they should work all
day and born with a desire to please. So the idea of German Shepherds
was established.
Through the 1890's Max Von
Stephanitz experiment with dog breeding. He was very interested
in the shepherd dogs because they were the true working dog of the
era. In 1889, he attended a small dog show and purchased Hektor
Linkrshem and changed it's name to Honrand Van Grafrath.
Two weeks later he and friends
founded the verein for Deutchse Schaferhunde (SZ). Honrand Van Grafrath
became the first stud dog, (SZ). He was the first registered German
Shepherd dog.
The club statutes and the
breed standards were drawn and are used in Germany today.
Under his leadership, the
club and breed grew steadily. By 1923, there were 57,000 members
in the SV. The breed became famous in World War One for acts of
courage. During this time, police agencies discovered the dogs and
put them to work.
In the early 1900's, the
first German Shepherd were imported to the United States. They grew
in popularity after the first World War when American soldiers returned
with tales of the dogs courage, loyalty, and intelligence.
Between 1918-1926, when the
breed's popularity reached its peak, the puppy factories in the
United States worked overtime. But as time went on, these unsound
dogs grew into adults with bad dispositions and the popularity fell
off sharply.
However, serious American
breeders imported top German dogs to develop dogs in the true German
tradition. These dogs are strong, efficient, noble, loyal, and intelligent.
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